Friday, 18 Dec 92 Washington, DC

1. FY 1993 NSF OPERATING PLAN IS APPROVED--WITH A FEW EXCEPTIONS!
At this point the plan itself is still a state secret; it was not shared even with NSF Division heads. Why such secrecy? Perhaps it was concern that some grantees would lobby the Appropriations Committees to urge that parts of the plan be rejected. In fact, some parts of the plan were disapproved. A letter signed by Sen. Mikulski (D-MD) and Bob Traxler (D-MI), lists several exceptions; curiously, no mention is made of the NSF strategic plan.

2. IN A TOUGH YEAR, LIGO SEEMS TO BE THE MOST CONTENTIOUS ISSUE.
When it became clear that this was going to be a rotten year, NSF sought to scale back its $48M request for LIGO to $16M. Alas, the LIGO pitchmen did not let up. Over NSF objections, Congress ear- marked $38M for LIGO construction, with another $5M for LIGO R&D to be taken from Physics. Last year, Congress earmarked $2M more for LIGO than NSF requested--which was taken from the National High Magnetic Field Lab. In this year's operating plan, NSF tried to reduce LIGO to $25M, but the Appropriations Committees did not agree to the reduction, and the Mikulski/Traxler letter instructs NSF to go ahead and allocate the $5M to LIGO from Physics. The letter does call for a meeting between Committee staff and NSF officials in early January to resolve the disagreement. Walter Massey has already met with Sen. Bennett Johnston (D-LA), chair of the Appropriations Committee, to plead for the lower figure, but reportedly got nowhere. One LIGO site will be in Louisiana.

3. THE MOST POLITICAL ISSUE WAS CLEARLY THE RELOCATION OF NSF.
Mikulski returned fire in the war between Maryland and Virginia. In a letter to President Bush, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) urged the immediate firing of NSF Director Walter Massey for his refusal to relocate NSF to a site in Wolf's district. It all began in 1987, when then-Director Erich Bloch asked GSA for new office space. A site in Arlington, VA was selected in 1990 that would save the taxpayers $81M, according to a GAO report. Sen. Mikulski (D-MD), favors a move--but to the Maryland side of the Potomac. In March, the White House ordered Massey to move, but no money for the move was ever appropriated, since Mikulski controls the spigot. The money would have to come out of research, and NSF, which is two blocks from the White House, is not anxious to move to the burbs anyway. On the same day that Wolf called for firing Massey for not moving, the Mikulski/Traxler letter ordered Massey to stay put: "With regard to the proposed move, we direct the Foundation to withhold from taking any actions, including expenditure or receipt of funds, to initiate such a move." A few days later, Sen. Robb (D-VA) wrote to Vernon Jordan, Director of the Clinton Transition, charging that Massey had lobbied Congress to withhold funds for a move and asking for assurances that the Clinton Administration would not revisit the question of where to locate NSF. But with Robb facing indictment on charges of conspiracy to violate wiretap laws, it's not clear how much influence he has.



Bob Park can be reached via email at whatsnew@bobpark.org
THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
Opinions are the author's and are not necessarily shared by the University, but they should be.